Book contents
- Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity
- Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Late Antique Letters
- Chapter 2 The Christianisation of the Late Antique Letter-Form
- Chapter 3 Preservation and Transmission
- Chapter 4 Letter-Types and Their Uses
- Chapter 5 Difficulties in Spreading the Word
- Chapter 6 Networks and Communities of Readers
- Epilogue
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 1 - Introduction to Late Antique Letters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2020
- Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity
- Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Late Antique Letters
- Chapter 2 The Christianisation of the Late Antique Letter-Form
- Chapter 3 Preservation and Transmission
- Chapter 4 Letter-Types and Their Uses
- Chapter 5 Difficulties in Spreading the Word
- Chapter 6 Networks and Communities of Readers
- Epilogue
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Here we convey the variety and complexity of late-antique Greek and Latin correspondences, tracing their antecedents from Classical times, their indebtedness to the apostle Paul, and subsequently to the post-apostolic writers. In the course of this overview we consider the considerable influence which Adolf Deissmann wielded in the first quarter of the twentieth century, and subsequently, on the question of what exactly a letter is. Now we are more cautious about writing and speaking about ‘letters’ and the ‘letter-genre’. Our next step in this chapter was to attempt a taxonomy of the more than 9,000 literary letters from Christian Late Antiquity, beginning with the category of dissenting voices.
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- Greek and Latin Letters in Late AntiquityThe Christianisation of a Literary Form, pp. 1 - 23Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020